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The man who created the euro banknotes predicts new controversies over the design change

Twenty years after their introduction, the man who conceived the banknotes euro foresees heated debates among Europeans, with the risk of a resurgence of national rivalries, following the announcement by the Central Bank that they will change their design.

Austrian euro banknote designer Robert Kalina can now contemplate his “work” from quiet retirement.

“It is incredible to think that the euro is now 20 years old, and I hope it will continue for a long time,” said the former designer of the Austrian central bank.

Kalina was the winner of a competition organized in 1996 to design the series of seven banknotes between 5 and 500 euros.

His designs, initially printed in 14.5 billion copies, have since doubled and circulated through the pockets of nearly 350 million Europeans and around the world.

A challenge

In his day he faced a great challenge: finding designs that all Europeans could identify with, without being linked to a specific country or appearing cold or anonymous.

The conditions prohibited the use of national symbols, such as portraits of famous people, which are often used for banknotes.

“Portraits could also have been authorized, but only with anonymous faces. I ruled it out from the beginning, ”he says smiling. And he came up with the idea of ​​using architecture.

Drawing inspiration from real buildings, he reworked and simplified his image together with an architectural and bridge-building engineer to make the structures “no longer recognizable.”

The images symbolically reflect centuries of European history, from Greek and Roman classicism on the 5 euro banknote to modern architecture on the 500 euro banknote, destined to disappear.

The designer also wanted to convey strong symbols: the windows and portals represent “the openness and vision of the future”, while the bridges represent “the connection between European countries, but also the European Union with the rest of the world”.

Despite the many crises that have marked the first two decades of the euro, Kalina claims that the symbolism behind her designs “remains valid.”

However the ECB announced in early December its plans to introduce new designs on euro banknotes by 2024.

Jealousy and rivalry

After 20 years, “the time has come to review the appearance of our banknotes to make them more meaningful to Europeans of all ages and backgrounds,” said ECB President Christine Lagarde.

Historical figures or emblematic monuments of the continent could be part of the next series, which will have the advice of the public and a group of 19 experts, one from each Eurozone Member State.

“The question is whether people have evolved enough to tolerate, for example, famous people being portrayed,” even if they are part of the heritage of a certain country, Kalina said.

“Will jealousy or other things return?” He wonders, recalling the heated debates on the subject in the 1990s.

In his opinion, music can be a solution, with “great composers who cannot be reduced to a single country, like Beethoven or Mozart.” Music “is a language in which you don’t need words and everyone understands it,” he says.

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